The stars of the Marvel Cinematic Universe are regularly named among the highest-paid actors and actresses in Hollywood, thanks largely to the profit participation clauses in their respective contracts that see them earn a percentage of the box office takings, with the franchise always guaranteed to pull in some seriously big numbers.
To illustrate that point, the list of top earners from 2019 was dominated by the cast of Avengers: Endgame. Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Bradley Cooper, Paul Rudd, Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson took home a combined total of over $350 million, the majority of which came from bonuses after the conclusion to the Infinity Saga hauled in almost $2.8 billion globally.
With that in mind, it’s hardly a shocking turn of events to hear insider Daniel Richtman reporting that Anthony Mackie will be getting a big pay raise for the in-development Captain America 4 for a number of reasons. First and foremost, it’s the actor’s first time taking top billing in an MCU movie, so he’s obviously going to be well compensated for it after playing a supporting role during his tenure so far.
Not only that, but the first Captain America trilogy earned over $2.2 billion and saw star Chris Evans’ upfront salary jump from $300,000 for The First Avenger to $15 million for Civil War, and you’d imagine Mackie would definitely be at the latter end of that pay scale having been part of the shared mythology since 2014, while he’s also coming off the back of a hugely popular and successful Disney Plus series.
Of course, the actor only found out about Captain America 4 from a guy at the grocery store, so we don’t even know if any contractual details have been hammered out as of yet, but you can guarantee that he’s not working for pennies.